


The End

by InkyJustine



Category: Subnautica (Video Game)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Bart Torgal lives, Fix-It, Gen, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-04-02
Updated: 2018-04-02
Packaged: 2019-04-17 08:56:08
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,435
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14185410
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/InkyJustine/pseuds/InkyJustine
Summary: Ryley was just about to leave when the message reached him.





	The End

**Author's Note:**

> I know, I know, it's silly but I couldn't help myself. Bart Torgal deserves better. :') Please suspend your disbelief.

Leaving would have been so easy. The rocket "Neptune" was behind him, ready for take off, ready to get him _off this planet_. Just a few more moments and the call would have missed him. Ryley would have been _gone_ , leaving this wretched and beautiful planet behind, get back home.

"Humans are one of the only species that help each other even in impossible situation," his AI, named Terra by him, piped up.

Ryley stayed silent, watching the distress signal on the screen of his helmet. It was far far down.

"On a motivational note: You have been there before," Terra helpfully pointed out and Ryley rolled his eyes.

"That doesn't mean I'm desperate to return," he replied, but his mind was already made up, going through possible plans. With a last longing look back at the rocket, he jumped back into the water. His first stop was going to be the portal, quickest way, although the fact the signal wasn't moving didn't fill Ryley with optimism. And Bart had said the portal was dead, leaving him stranded.

Bart Torgal.

Ryley had been to the island. The habitats had been deserted, supplying him with a lot of useful blueprints and seeds without which he wouldn't have made it this far. He would have bet on it, that the Torgal heir was dead along with the rest of his crew, if there had been anyone to bet with beside Terra. And now he was alive after all, trapped underwater in one of the facilities. Of course it was _almost_ the deepest one. Ryley had been there once and swore he wouldn't go back.

A sigh escaped him. So much for well-laid plans. It was so much nicer when stuff worked out, but ever since the Aurora had crashed he hadn’t felt particularly lucky. 

Without wasting time, he boarded his Cyclops and turned on the engine. Not the portal then. He had looked at his supplies and there wasn't enough to build a new ion battery to power the portal in a hurry and the more time he wasted the more likely _something_ was going to get to Bart before Ryley did. 

The Cyclops descended, almost but not quite brushing against the red sea grass on the bottom. A Sand Shark hurried out of the way, now all too familiar with the fact that Ryley wasn't stopping. It was one of the ones he had hatched himself, freed after he’d build the rocket. He didn't want them to be trapped until the habitat was giving up to time and fell apart like the ones the Degasi survivors had build.

According to the message, the portal had been deactivated. Where had Torgal junior come from? Ryley wondered. Weeks on this planet and he had seen neither hide nor hair of him. And the base on the floating island had been deserted. _Where have you been hiding, Torgal?_ , he thought. There was some way to go still until he hit the deep parts of the Grand Reef, until then he better had to figure out how to get _both_ of them back out and up to the surface.

Just the memory of going down there was enough to make cold sweat break out on his skin and get reabsorbed by his suit.

For the Seamoth, the alien facility was too deep and there hardly was any time to make a new blueprint anyway. Until now, Ryley didn't even had to _think_ about changing any of them, only how to regain them. For one person any of them had been enough.

For two now... well... that was something else indeed.

Ryley shook his head and left the engine running, setting the Cyclops on autopilot until he reached the Grand Reef before heading to his fabricator. Their suits were going to protect them against most of the heat, he decided. The Prawn Suit was only for one and it was too slow and smooth to hold on to for any length of time. He would have to get as close as he dared, stay out of sight of any Sea Dragons and take the Seaglide. He'd come so far. Months since the crash he'd survived and now he was risking it all for another survivor who might as well be dead by the time he reached him.  
Just like the others.

He had lost his mind, had to be. By now Ryley could have been breaching the atmosphere.

Just in case, he decided, he was going to bring an extra suit. A decade on this planet... the Kharaa Bacterium should have killed Bart by now. Ryley wondered what state he was going to find him in. But he wasn’t going to turn his back now, no matter how tempting it was with Neptune’s signal so much closer than Bart’s.

Ryley shouldered his Seaglide and fabricated another ultra-efficient air tank. They were going to weight him down, but the both of them may just make it out. They had to.

Otherwise everything had been in vain.

"Grand Reef reached, captain," the Cyclops' AI let him know and Ryley stepped back to the wheel. The abyss was looming beneath him with the Anchor Pods the only source of light. The surface was already far away here, leaving everything in a gloom.  
Ryley took a calming breath and let the Cyclops descent.

In his PDA log, Bart had said they'd gone too deep and now Ryley was going deeper than that. Again.  
The Anchor Pods rose on either side of the Cyclops. Ghost Rays darted out of his way. They were one of the prettier creatures on this planet.

 _Too bad the Crabsquid won't flee_ , Ryley caught himself thinking.

Except for the monsters and the broken open Degasi base at the bottom, the place was beautiful, eerie. Nothing disturbed him as he let the Cyclops sink down further until he could make out the entrance to the Lost River.

His hands sweat against the wheel and he turned down the engine. Silence was the key. Maybe then the Ghost Leviathan was going to take no notice of him. He could hear its cries. They send shivers down his spine. It wasn't yet too late to turn back.

Oh how he wanted to.

But he had reached the place before. He could do it again. He would do it for another survivor.

Carefully, he inched forward along the rocky corridor, past the juvenile leviathan who, thankfully, took no further notice of him, swimming lazily away instead towards some unsuspecting and soon-to-be-a-meal Ghost Ray.

Then the Bone Field spread out below him as he crept his way forward through the green gloom, rib cages and skulls rising up out of the dust.

Ryley only let out the breath he'd been holding when the green gloom bled into the clearer darkness of the cove. Ghost Rays drifted around him, the only source of light beside the luminescent plants growing down here. An oasis between the fields of deaths and hell. And here Ryley was, on his way to save his Persephone. He let out a soft noise of amusement.

So far so good.

His grandfather used to tell him of the old myths that people had believed in ages past. Down here in the caves, it didn't feel quite as silly. Especially when he edged around the corner of the platform and farther down, deep dark blue of the meager light bleeding into the red glow of the lava spots illuminating the ground. Small pools he had to avoid unless he wanted to be fried. Not far now. Half a mile underground.

Distantly, he heard the roar of the Sea Dragon. He shuddered, imagined he could see the ends of tentacles swim away in the blood red gloom.

 _Not far now._ The thought failed to be reassuring, but it was all he had. The less distance to the thermal plant of the Precursors, the less distance there was left between him and the dragon.  
As he looked on, a Lava Eel attached itself to his window, sucking away energy from his batteries.

Ryley let the cyclops sink a little further down towards a spot not covered in lava. Then, scanning the surroundings on last time, he disembarked, clutching his Repulsion Cannon. Quickly, he swam around and up the side of the Cyclops and blasted the parasite off the hull. A Lava Biter took an interest in him and before it could do its name justice, Ryley was already back inside and turned the engine back on.

The roar rang closer now, seeming to come from everywhere at once.

Ryley didn't hate this place, it would have meant to love it in a roundabout sort of way. He _loathed_ this place, with its heat and jagged rocks making it hard to navigate. Lava blew up steam that hung over the cavern like a curtain and reduced the depth of view. The constant roar and sound of fireballs hitting their targets which let out a dying shriek.

Ryley just wanted to be up and out, back in the shallows where he could see the sun.

Bart Torgal better be alive when he reached him or Ryley had to find a way to bring him back and kill him all over again for making him come all this way through hell.

Up ahead, Ryley saw a tunnel, the blocky shape of the alien structure opposite it. Carefully, he steered his vehicle inside the tunnel and out of view before he ran a scan on the exterior of his Cyclops for any parasites. Coming back to a dead machine wasn't part of the plan.

Grabbing his tools and shouldering his Seaglide, he disembarked. The water was uncomfortably hot, even with the suit saving him from getting boiled. There was no time to waste.

He activated the Seaglide and swam straight towards the entrance, startling a Crimson Ray into swimming out of his way. A fireball whizzed past his head, roar _very_ close now. The water seemed to vibrate but there the entrance was.

Ryley didn't slow down before slamming into it. The forcefield caught him, let him through and Ryley let out a grunt when he hit the ground, gravity pulling on his body again after the weightlessness of the water.

Catching his breath, Ryley rested the Seaglide against the ground and stepped forward. The arche was empty of its usual glow. Ryley hadn't _thought_ that Bart Torgal was lying, but seeing it for himself was disconcerting.

A low noise drew him to the other room, the one which used to hold the blue tablet.

Bart sat huddled against the far corner, a shadow of a man. The last decade hadn't been kind to him, Ryley could imagine it even though he hadn't seen a picture of him _before_. His face was gaunt, visible skin covered by the green glowing blisters Ryley knew all too well. The green veins were more prominent than anything Ryley had seen on himself.

Then Bart cought, got wracked by a fit it seemed and only opened his eyes when he stopped again, body falling listlessly back against the wall. But he wasn’t dead.

Ryley wouldn't be able to describe the noise Bart made when he caught sight of Ryley standing in the room, part grunt of surprise, sob, scream but then he was scrambling to his feet, face turned away. Ryley didn't see his eyes, but he rushed to his side when he faltered, pulled him onto his feet.

Bart kept a hold of his arm once he stood, but it was weak. Ryley could have pushed him away as easily as a fly. But he didn't. Bart Torgal was a sight for sore eyes, no matter the shape he was in. If possible, Ryley held on harder.

"Who are you?" Bart asked, voice steadier than he looked. A decade without human contact, Ryley felt giddy himself at seeing another friendly face that wasn't formed like a fish or kraken.

"Ryley Robinson."

“Ryley…”, Bart said his name as if trying out its shape. Then he smiled, fingers squeezing Ryley’s arm weakly. “You got past the monster outside. How…?” He trailed off. As if on cue, the Sea Dragon roared outside. In front of him, Bart shuddered, face pale. 

“It’s a Sea Dragon,” Ryley explained, “Nasty buggers, but we can outswim it if we’re fast.” _And if it has it’s back turned,_ he mentally added, but didn’t say. Bart looked frightened enough as it was.

"Seeing another survivor here… You really came..." Bart breathed out. Then he smiled once more, more a grimace in his sickly face, but Ryley was ready to take anything. To talk to someone that wasn't just an artificial disembodied voice was more relieving than he could put into words. Wisely, he didn't say that, nearly he hadn't.

Then Bart's face fell as they went out in the corridor and his eyes fell on the Seaglide. As far as rescue vehicles went, it wasn't much.

"We'll never make it back to the surface with only a Seaglide." It sounded resigned, not desperate as Ryley would have thought. As if he had already accepted his death. 

"My Cyclops is close," Ryley said, forcing himself to sound calm, and handed Bart the air tank he had taken with him. There were cuts in Bart's suit, sights of wear and tear, so Ryley handed him the spare suit as well.

Bart nodded without Ryley having to explain himself.

While he listened to the rustling of fabric in the other room he kept talking.

"It's not so far, but any closer and the Sea Dragon would have fried the Cyclops on sight. We'll have to be quick but the tank should last to the hatch."

Bart stepped back into the corridor. Determination was a better look on him, making him look a little healthier.

"Hold onto me," Ryley said and stepped through the forcefield back into the water. It wasn't really necessary to voice what was going to happen if their air ran out. Down here, there were a dozen chances to die.

Bart's arms wrapped around Ryley's middle as they moved as quickly as the Seaglide pulling their combined weight forward allowed. In Bart's case, Ryley suspected, it probably wasn't much anyway. He looked only skin and bones.

The Sea Dragon's back was turned to them as it roared and let out a salve of molten rocks rain down on a luckless Crimson Ray. Distantly and still far too close, a second Sea Dragon answered it. Ryley cursed. It hadn’t spotted them, yet.

Bart’s grip tightened around Ryley's middle and if Bart had been in better shape, it may have been just to the point of pain. As it was, Ryley took almost no notice of it. Lava Eels following them were outdistanced easily enough, although they nearly crashed into a ray when Ryley checked the position of the Sea Dragon. The tunnel was up ahead, drawing closer.

A Cave Biter snapped at their feet, mistaking them for an easy meal and missed and then there was safety right in front of them in the form of the hatch to the cyclops.

Ryley pushed Bart up ahead of him, up the ladder when another set of teeth snapped at his leg and nearly tore the fabric. He kicked, feeling durable skin and then the hatch closed behind him as well and he could follow Bart to the bridge. When he closed the second hatch behind them, Bart had collapsed against the wall of the fabricator. In his state, they couldn't leave the planet. Not yet.

"I'm sorry," Bart panted, "I used to be in better shape." A weak grin.

"I'll get you the cure," Ryley promised him. “We can both return home.”

"You found the cure? You've been busy." Disbelief painted Bart’s face, laced with hope.

Now it was Ryley's turn to grin weakly. "I had help."

Bart looked at him thoughtfully, but he didn't ask despite the question in his eyes. So Ryley got to his feet and stepped to the wheel. While he'd been gone, the Cyclops had stayed undisturbed, much to their luck.

He turned on the engine and made his way slowly out of the little tunnel and along the wall of the cave towards the exit.

There was a roar...

And Ryley was forced to discard any plans of going _slow_ when the roar rang out again way too close for comfort and the Sea Dragon turned their way, right in their line of sight.

The Cyclops AI told him the same tired old warning when he flanked the engine and they picked up speed. A Lava Eel slammed into the windshield and held. The first fireball was absorbed by the shield, the second hit their rump, nearly toppling the Cylcops onto its side.

The third hit a rock beside them as they ducked into the shelter of an outcrop, breaking them out of the Sea Dragon's sight. The exit was closer now.

Alarms blared as the claws of the Sea Dragon grazed the hull and they ducked into the silky eerie darkness of the Cove.

The engine stilled.

Smoke was filling the interior. The door had slammed shut and Bart was coughing, hacking up a lung while Ryley grabbed the nearest fire-extinguisher, putting out fires and looking at the screen showing him the damage.

The alarms kept blaring as the smoke cleared and the door unlocked, leaving him to put out the rest of the fires, cursing under his breath.

Once the last fire was gone, he went out. The eels were easy enough to remove and he only went in once to replenish his air as he repaired the hull in the luminescent lights of the Ghost Rays and the Cove Tree.

Then he went back inside. Bart had stopped coughing.

Ryley would have expected him to comment on the beauty of the display, the Cove Tree glowing in the darkness. His blood ran cold when he finally took a closer look at the other man. He was laying on the ground. For one horrible moment Ryley thought he was dead. He stumbled closer and with shaky fingers felt for a pulse. He hadn't come this far for...

But there was a pulse, faint but present. A shaky exhale and he stood. In his Cyclops he hardly had made space for a bed. The ground was a bad place to rest but- with a sigh Ryley picked up his Habitat Builder and hunted down a few pieces of titanium and fabric.

He found a place for a single bed and once it was there, he went back for Bart.

The younger Torgal was light as a feather when he picked him up and carried him to the bed. His breath at least had deepened, heart beating a little stronger.

"Scan suggest, that the emperor enzyme has spread around the mountain area and other areas. Contact with the enzyme may prevent further harm from the Kharaa bacteria," his AI whispered into his ear. So Ryley went back to the wheel and turned on the engine.

The Cove Tree at least was peaceful. Ryley would have liked to show Bart the wonder of it, maybe linger for one last moment. Once they were up on the surface, he didn't plan to return.

He steered the Cyclops past the giant tree with its glowing eggs and slowly, the water morphed from it's clear blue to sickly green as they entered the Lost River. It put him into the mind of the underworld from stories eras past. He would have liked to tell Bart of those as well. Maybe he had heard from some of them as well.

Ryley's eyes fell on the Sea Dragon skeleton on the ground, another relict that Bart may have found interesting to see, now that he had ran into a living one.

He slowed the Cyclops as not to draw any unwanted attention. Here he could hear the wails of the Ghost Leviathan. At least nothing _else_ could damage his Cyclops in here unless he rammed it into the walls. Carefully, he steered his way through a couple of ribs, making towards the trench leading him to the Blood Kelp Zone. From there it was only a short way to the emperor juvenile that had made its way there and while he would have to dodge other Ghost Leviathans, at least no Crabsquids could disable his electronics... again.

Ryley started breathing a little easier once he saw the Blood Kelp replacing the flora of the lost river. The walls were closer here, making it difficult to steer the Cyclops through without damaging it.

"I've never been here before."

The voice made Ryley jump. Bart stepped up beside him, peering out through the glass at the Blighter swimming past. The eerie light of a Warper flashed a few paces to the side of them, but it did not try to attack as it ported away. Fortunately for _them_ it hadn't spotted them. Ryley kept to his slow pace.

"Blood Kelp," Ryley said, "this trench is a little less dangerous."

"There really is a cure?" Bart's voice sounded small. He _looked_ young, too, despite the clear signs of a decade spend in difficult circumstances. The lines of the illness were vivid against his skin.

"Yes," Ryley replied, "I'm bringing you to it."

Finally the walls fell away and Ryley turned his Cyclops towards the south, passing over the Sparse Reef until the anchor pods glowed below them once more.

Bart let out a small sound of fear when the small Sea Emperor appeared in front of them. Ryley wondered if it recognized him. But it hardly mattered.

Especially when the tiny Sea Emperor burped and a sparkling blob slowly drifted downwards.

"What is that?" Bart asked and then looked at Ryley in confusion when he grinned.

"That is your cure."

"You are serious," Bart said, puzzled, but he followed Ryley willingly enough when he made his way down the ladder to the hatch. There they stopped.

"The Sea Emperor is peaceful," Ryley explained. Around them there was only the deep blue sea of Planet 4546B. Safety as long as they hurried. "You will have to touch the-" he hesitated, "the blob" he decided when he couldn't think of a better term, "it's an enzyme which cures the virus."

Bart nodded. "I understand."

They exited the Cyclops. Ryley was aware of Bart's presence behind him, carefully keeping his distance from the big creature in front of them. It was only tiny compared to its parent which Bart had never seen. The little Sea Emperor in turn regarded them curiously, swimming close to Ryley before it turned, apparently losing interest, and went away.

Ryley pulled Bart closer by the wrist to the sparkling blob and motioned for him to touch it.

Bart hesitated, Ryley couldn't fault him. But then he moved, green-spotted hands connecting with the blob and letting it engulf him, spread the enzyme over his skin. Then he rubbed it over it and the both of them watched the enzyme take the green spots away, leaving unmarked skin in their wake.

Ryley turned away when he caught the expression on Bart Torgal's face. They didn't know each other long enough for him to witness this intimate moment.

After a while, keeping an eye on his oxygen display, Bart swam past him and Ryley followed him back to the Cyclops.

"Thank you," Bart said when they were inside. His voice wavered ever so slightly.

"You're welcome. What do you say. Read to leave the planet?"

Bart nodded and Ryley let the Cyclops rise until it almost touched the surface. Then he turned towards Neptune's signal and set the engine to standard.

"I didn't think anyone had survived," Bart said after a while. "I noticed some of my things being missing...," he trailed off and shook his head. "My first thought had been that my mind was playing tricks on me again."

"Over ten years is a lot of time to be alone on a hostile planet," Ryley allowed.

They fell silent. There wasn't anything to add.

After a while Ryley nudged the Cyclops a little further up so they could see the platform in front of them, with the rocket looming on top of it. The corpse of the Aurora was a sobering view behind it. Below them the red fields of the Grassy Plateau spread out.

"I made everything ready," Ryley said. "Your signal caught me just when I was about to leave."

"Just my luck then, that you didn't." Bart smiled. His face had lost some of the gauntness, or maybe the virus had just stopped casting its shadow. What a difference it made when the green glowing spots and prominent veins disappeared. Ryley smiled back. Now they just had to go.

Bart climbed up the ladder to the platform with Ryley following close behind, marveling at leaving this planet not alone after all.

Silently they made their way up the elevator and into the rocket. It was standard issue, four seats at the top and Ryley would have used it alone to leave. It was comforting to know someone was there beside him.

“Do you know how to fly this thing?” Bart asked him. He almost looked at home in the rocket. 

“I do,” Ryley said curtly and Bart nodded and left him to power up the systems. 

Then they leaned back into their seats.

"Will you miss it?" Ryley asked, curious now despite himself. Almost a decade was a long time to call a planet your home.

"I think I will," Bart answered, looking thoughtful, "it's an incredible planet and beautiful despite its dangers."

Ryley nodded and thought of the pictures he had taken with his PDA.

The Neptune rose into the sky, leaving Planet 4546B behind them. Ryley cursed when they cleared the debris field, small rocks hitting their windshields and then only the expanse of space briefly spread out in front of them before they jumped into the nearest phase gate.

 

Then Earth loomed in front of them. Ryley had never seen a more relieving sight. At least that was before the radio crackled with a message. 

"Welcome back to Alterra. Permission to land will be granted after you have settled your outstanding balance of: 1,000,000,000,000 credits"

Ryley’s face fell, he could _feel_ it crumble and anger ignite hot in his belly. Bart touching his hand briefly distracted him. 

“Don’t worry about it. We can deal with this, together.”


End file.
